Henry Laurens

Henry Laurens (6 March 1724-8 December 1792) was the President of the Continental Congress from 1 November 1777 to 9 December 1778, succeeding John Hancock and preceding John Jay. Laurens was the father of John Laurens, an aide-de-camp to George Washington during the American Revolutionary War, and while Henry was the owner of the largest plantation, his son was a major abolitionist leader. Laurens negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris, making peace with Great Britain at the end of the war, but he retired from politics the next year and died on his estate in 1792.

Biography
Henry Laurens was born on 6 March 1724 in Charleston, South Carolina, descended from a family of Huguenots that immigrated to British America from France in the late 17th century. Laurens was educated in London, and in 1750 he married Eleanor Ball, who was also of a southern plantation-owning family. Laurens served as Lieutenant-Colonel in 1757-1761 in the fight against the Cherokee during the French and Indian War, and he was initially a loyalist when the American Revolution was nearing in the 1770s. However, on 9 January 1775 he was elected as a delegate to the First Continental Congress after starting to support the patriot cause. From 1777 to 1778, he served as President of the Continental Congress, and he was sent as minister to the United Provinces of the Netherlands. In 1780, he negotiated the Dutch government's support for the American Revolutionary War, and his ship was captured in the English Channel; Laurens was the only American to spend time in the Tower of London until the 31 December 1781 exchange of Laurens for General Charles Cornwallis after the Siege of Yorktown. In 1782, his son John Laurens was killed in a skirmish with the British Army, and a conflicted Laurens ultimately decided not to flee his slaves. Laurens negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, and he retired from politics the next year. Laurens died on 8 December 1792 at his Mepkin estate in Charleston.